


Give The Devil His Due

by BecauseImClassy



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: F/M, Matt Murdock Needs a Hug, and then another hug, can be shippy or platonic, this is the story of a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 12:13:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6078924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BecauseImClassy/pseuds/BecauseImClassy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt's been working too hard at daredeviling, and it's starting to affect him during the day. A day at the office begins badly, but Karen thinks she can help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Give The Devil His Due

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place some time after Karen knows the truth about Matt.

Foggy and Karen are both at work already when Matt arrives. They’re in the tiny kitchen, teasing each other about Karen’s coffee and Foggy’s fashion sense, when the door opens.

“Morning, Matt!”

“Hey buddy, you want some coffee?”

But Matt says nothing, just walks past them toward his office. There’s a black scowl on his face, along with some new scrapes and bruises, and he’s walking like a predator on the prowl. _Daredevil._ Karen and Foggy exchange a worried look. Foggy follows him.

“Matt! You okay?”

Matt half turns, aiming his scowl toward the back wall. “I’m fine.” He goes into his office and shuts the door—another bad sign.

Foggy finds Karen right behind him. He opens his mouth to say something, but changes his mind. They both know Matt can hear anything they say anyway. They look at each other helplessly, then Foggy shakes his head and retreats to his own office.

Karen sits at her desk and tries to work, but her eyes keep straying toward Matt’s office. He never shuts the blinds over his windows, so she has a clear view of him sitting at his desk. His computer’s open, but his hands are motionless above his braille reader, and he hasn’t bothered putting in his earpiece. He’s not even pretending to work, he’s just sitting and brooding.

She makes a decision, gets up and walks right into his office, stopping just inside the door. Matt tips his head in her direction.

“Karen, I’m fine.” He doesn’t even sound like himself. This voice, this voice she’s heard just once before, in the rain, after he’d taken her flash drive off the hit man sent to kill her. She feels suddenly nervous, but she’s not about to back out now.

“Fine? Sure you are,” she says gently. “Matt, if any clients came came in right now you’d scare them away.” He winces at that, but remains grim. She walks over to the desk and bends down until her face is inches from his. “Daredevil,” she whispers, and he whips his head around to glare at her. “You need to stand down,” she finishes, and puts a hand on his arm. He flinches. She straightens, runs her hand up his arm so as not to startle him any further, and puts her hands on his shoulders. They’re like rock. He’s tense, wired, ready to spring into action at any moment. She hitches a hip up onto his desk, and gnaws her lip. _Now what?_

“Rough night?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he snaps, then sighs, and pulls his glasses off to run his hands over his face. He rubs his forehead, where a merciless tension headache is building. “Yes,” he says, more calmly. “It was a rough night. It’s been a string of rough nights, if you want to know.”

“And now you’re having trouble switching gears. Have you slept?”

“Yes.” He gets up and starts pacing his office, unable to keep still. “But not much,” he admits.

“That’s what I thought. You’re way too tense. So, how do we get you out of vigilante mode and back…back to _you?”_

“This _is_ me, Karen.”

“I know, I know, I get that,” she sighs. “This is part of who you are. But it isn’t all you are. When we first met, the night you let me sleep at your place, you didn’t just give me a place to sleep. You talked to me, you tried to put me at ease and make me comfortable, because you knew how scared I was. You barely knew me, but you were kind to me. That’s who you are, too.” She intercepts him the next time he passes the desk, and takes his hand. He flinches again, but manages to not pull away. She asks herself, _Is this a good idea or a terrible idea?_ and plunges in. “Matt, I would like to hug you. Do you think it might help?”

He looks like she’s lost her mind. And yet…she’s not wrong. He’s been going out every single night lately, getting mired down deeper and deeper into the city’s underbelly, and it’s been getting harder and harder to shake the devil off his back at the end of the night. He knows he’s in no condition right now to be at the office, it’s not fair to Foggy and Karen, let alone any clients who might come in. He rubs his forehead again with his free hand. “I don’t know if it’ll help,” he answers, and sighs. “But it can’t hurt.”

She smiles, relieved, steps in close, and puts her arms around him. She plants a quick kiss on his cheek, then rests her chin on his shoulder and leans her head against his. The kiss startles him— _Why would she?_ —when he’s been acting like such a dick?

He’s standing rigidly, it’s like hugging a statue. _Still not convinced this is a good idea._ She has no idea what she’s doing, she just hoped a hug would help, it did once before. But he just stands there, not moving. He needs to snap out of it, how can she encourage his kinder, gentler side to come back?

She starts talking, quietly, right beside his ear. “When you go out at night, you see the worst this city has to offer. You seek it out, because that’s what you have to do to help people.” She ruffles his hair with one hand, the other slowly rubbing his back. “But if you do that night after night, and never give yourself a break, no wonder it’s gotten to you like this. You need some good, too, so you don’t get buried in the bad.”

Matt feels defensive and confused, and suddenly he’s reminded of college, when he first met Foggy. He hadn’t been close to anyone for so long, it had taken him time to accept the reality of their friendship. He remembers feeling this same confusion— _Why is he being nice to me all the time?_ —before he learned to trust that the friendship was its own reason, not requiring any other explanation. 

Maybe he needs to give Karen that same trust. He stiffly puts his arms around her, and tries to shed the nervous tension that’s been possessing him all morning. He’d tried to shake it off at home, and failed. Now, he tries once more to clear his mind, and focuses all his attention on Karen, doing his best to let go of all extraneous thoughts and distractions. He concentrates on her smell, citrus and spice and just a little nervous sweat. The softness of her hair against his cheek. Her arms around his shoulders, the feel of her back under his hands, her body pressed against his. Her breathing, the steady beat of her heart, the soft murmur of her voice in his ear.

“You help people here too, in this office,” she continues, feeling his breathing begin to slow. “But here, the people you’re dealing with are the good ones, the ones coming to you for help. It takes a completely different set of skills from what you do at night, dealing with the bad people. You can’t get stuck like this, you’ve got to be able to switch back and forth when you need to.” She also thinks that it can’t possibly be good for him to be stuck in this black emotional hole, but she knows better than to try making an argument based on his well-being. Make it about his ability to help others, and maybe he’ll listen.

“The work you do in here, it’s slower than your work out there. You don’t get such immediate results. But it’s more effective in the long run, you’ve said it yourself.” He’s starting to soften out of that hyper-vigilant tautness, his muscles relaxing. “The results you get through the legal system are the ones that last. You’re such a good lawyer, Matt, you can do this.”

Foggy glances up from his desk, then does a double take at the sight of Matt and Karen embracing in Matt’s office. _What the hell?_ Why would Karen go in there and _hug_ him? (He knows well enough that Matt never initiated it.) When Matt—when Daredevil—came stalking into the office this morning, Foggy’s own impulse was to get away from him. Karen, it seems, is doing the opposite. Foggy feels a little ashamed of himself. Apparently, accepting Matt’s double life is an ongoing process, not a simple decision, and he’s not as okay with it as he’d thought. But now he’s curious. Is Karen’s approach going to work?

Matt’s leaning into the hug now, feeling his lack of sleep as the tension slowly drains out of him. He’s breathing deeper, slower, feeling his heartbeat settle into a calmer rhythm. He curls his arms more securely around Karen, and rubs his cheek against her hair.

“You can do this,” she murmurs again, still rubbing his back. She runs one hand back up into his hair, running her fingers over his scalp until he makes an involuntary _nnnnghmmmf_ sound and sags against her, his face against her neck. He’s limp, the strain is gone. The devil is gone, for now, put away until he’s needed. Karen pulls back just enough to touch her cheek to his, so he can feel her smile.

“Thank you,” he says quietly.

“You’re welcome. I’m glad it worked.” They both hold on for just a little longer, then she leans away a little and looks at him. He looks exhausted, and strangely vulnerable without his glasses. She raises a hand to his cheek, careful not to touch his latest injuries.

“Get some sleep tonight, all right?”

He sighs, and smiles. “I will. I promise.”

“Good. And, Matt…I know you’re going to do what you have to do. I won’t try to stop you. But, when things start to get bad…let me know, okay? I’d like to help. I’m happy to do this again if you need it.”

Somehow, it still surprises him. Even though she’s helped him before, it never would have occurred to him to ask.

“All right, I’ll remember that. Thank you.” He puts a hand over hers, pressing his cheek into her palm, then lets go and stands back.

“Good. Now go talk to Foggy, he’s worried.”

Foggy sees them emerging and leaves his own office to meet them halfway. Matt looks like himself again. At least, like himself when he’s been studying too hard and not sleeping enough.

“Um. Hey.”

“Hey, Foggy. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be bringing…all that into the office with me. I just couldn’t shake it off this morning.”

“But you’re okay now?”

“I’m fine. Really, this time. I just promised Karen I’m going to get some sleep tonight.”

“Okay, good, that’s good.” Uncharacteristically, Foggy doesn’t know quite what to say. But then Matt surprises him by reaching out and pulling him into a hug. Foggy hugs him back, and when they step apart they’re both smiling. Karen’s smiling too, she hates to see any constraint between the two of them.

“Okay, buddy. Ready to save the world?”

“Absolutely. Karen, you ready to help us?”

“Absolutely!” 

They all grin at each other, and finally get started on the day’s work.

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't quite sure what to do with Foggy in this one. I didn't want to just leave him out, though, I love Foggy. And it's his office too, he would be there first thing in the morning! He would have feelings about this business!


End file.
